Superman Publication History | DC Database | Fandom powered by Wikia Golden Age Origins The first Superman character created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster was not a hero, but a villain. Their short story "The Reign of the Superman" concerned a bald-headed villain bent on dominating the world. The story did not sell, forcing the two to reposition their character on the right side of the law. In 1935, their Superman story was again rejected by newspaper syndicates wanting to avoid lawsuits, who recognized the character as being similar to a lead character from Philip Wylie's 1930 novel. DC decided to take a chance with Superman, figuring if any lawsuits were filed, they would just drop the feature. Early sketch of Superman/Clark Kent The revised Superman first appeared in Action Comics #1 , June 1938. Siegel and Shuster sold the rights to the company for $130 and a contract to supply the publisher with material. The Saturday Evening Post reported in 1941 that the pair was being paid still a fraction of DC's Superman profits.

In 1946, when Siegel and Shuster sued for more money, DC fired them, prompting a legal battle that ended in 1948, when they signed away any further claim to Superman or any character created from him. DC soon took their names off the byline. Following the huge financial success of Superman: The Movie in 1978 and news reports of their pauper-like existences, Warner Communications gave Siegel and Shuster lifetime pensions of $35,000 per year and health care benefits. In addition, any media production which includes the Superman character must include the credit, "Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster". Close-up of Action Comics #1, the character's first published appearance World's Fair Superman first appeared in the flesh at the 1940 New York World's Fair, portrayed by actor Ray Middleton. Ray Middleton as Superman, 1940 Silver Age During a multimedia career spanning over seventy years, Superman has starred in nearly every imaginable situation, and his powers have increased to the point that he is nearly omnipotent.

This poses a challenge for writers: "How does one write about a character who is nearly as powerful as God?" (Superman's Kryptonian name, Kal-El , resembles the Hebrew words for "voice of God") This problem contributed to a decline in Superman's popularity, especially during the 1960s and 1970s under the editorship of Mort Weisinger and then Julius Schwartz , when Marvel Comics brought a new level of character development to mainstream comic books. The Silver Age Superman Superman #149 - One of many "Deaths of Superman" Bronze Age Kal-L , the "other" real Superman After the establishment of DC Comics' Multiverse in the 1960s, it was established retroactively that a second primary Superman lived on the parallel world of Earth-Two. This Superman was supposed to be the Superman of the "Golden Age" comics, while the Silver Age incarnation had his adventures in the then current Earth designated as Earth-One .

It was this separation of the two primary versions of the character that was meant to explain away problems of the character, who never ceased publication from the end of the Golden Age, such as one ongoing incarnation since his debut being still in his late twenties while shown in several specific Golden Age stories and not aging during all that time and many other supportive element conflictions. The writers of DC at the time did not originally believe that having two active Supermen would be successful sales and wrote that the Earth-Two Superman only as a one time event to clear up this problem. However the character along with the other now named Earth-Two incarnations proved so successful that Kal-L was brought back as a reoccurring character being featured in the renamed "Superman Family" series and hence un-retired though on a limited basis. However the writers at DC mostly did not want to do two Superman and mostly wrote the Earth-Two Superman almost as a direct copy of the main Superman with only superficial differences such as Kal-L discovered a rocket of Kryptonian origin landing on Earth, which contained his cousin, Kara Zor-L who like the main Supergirl after acclimating to Earth, Kara-L became the superheroine Power Girl .

Despite being almost a parallel some writers started to develop specific differences between the two due to success of the character with older readers. While the success of the "other" Superman was definite, many writers originally did not want to have too many conflicting stories and had Kal-L resigned from the revived Justice Society as a full time active member in order to allow Power Girl to take his place in the team. Kal-L (shown with Earth-One "S" shield) retiring from the Earth-Two JSA in order to let Kara-L assume his position in the JSA ( Showcase #99 ) The revamped Earth-Two Superman proved so successful that he rejoined the JSA while Power Girl left to join Infinity Inc. while Kal-L's specific background was developed separate from the original Golden Age stories, most notably in a series of stories in the 1970s established that the Earth-Two Superman, after losing his memory thanks to the Wizard, had married his version of Lois Lane in the 1950s ( Action Comics #484 , (1978)), followed by having him become the editor-in-chief of the Daily Star which were never done to the true Golden Age Superman.

Kal-L was revealed to have been a founding member of the Earth-Two Justice Society in the team's origin story in DC Special #29 . In the early 1980s, the Earth-Two Superman was further revamped to have been an active member of the All-Star Squadron during World War II. During the 1985 miniseries Crisis on Infinite Earths, the various parallel Earths were collapsed into one, retroactively eliminating Earth-Two and all that it contained. Kal-l, along with his wife Lois Lane-Kent , were spared from universal annihilation that destroyed their source universe, and entered a "paradise" dimension at the end of the series. Kal-L wasn't seen again until the miniseries The Kingdom in 1999, where it was revealed that he had found a means of exiting his dimension, but chose not to at that time. In Infinite Crisis #1 (2005), the Earth-Two Superman was shown as having observed events in the post-Crisis DC Universe from his dimension, and finally decided to re-enter the mainstream DC Universe. The Earth-Two Superman was written to be different from the primary Superman in every aspect such as his aging and his power levels.

For example while incredibly powerful, the Earth-Two Superman is always written as being considerably weaker than the Earth-One Superman. The Superman of Earth-One was written as easily move planets while the Superman of Earth-Two was shown moving ocean liners. When originally introduced as separate character in Justice League of America #79 , Kal-L was shown to be an even match to the Earth-One Superman. This would be changed in the very next meeting in order to distinguish the two Justice League of America #91 , where the Earth-Two Superman was shown to be definitely less powerful to the "main" Superman though still incredibly powerful. These distinctions would be fleshed out fully as the Earth-Two Superman was used more repeatedly, such as showing Kal-L growing less powerful as he aged over the years, directly aging whereas the Earth-One Superman incarnation seemed to remain permanently youthful, marrying his Lois and focusing openly on his life as Clark Kent while the "main" Superman was almost used exclusively as the hero who fought the"never ending battle for truth justice and the American Way" and never really developing Clark as his real persona. Modern Age By the early 1980s, DC Comics had decided that a major change was needed to make Superman more appealing to current audiences.

Writer-artist John Byrne joined Superman and re-started with the company requested Man of Steel retelling of his origin. This 1986 reboot brought substantial changes to the character and met huge success at the time, being one of the top-selling books. The re-launch of Superman comic books returned the character to the mainstream, again in the forefront of DC's titles. Artist John Byrne 's Modern Age / Post-Crisis Superman All Star Superman, launched in 2005, is an ongoing series under DC's All Star imprint, written by Grant Morrison and drawn by Frank Quitely . DC claims that this series will "strip down the Man of Steel to his timeless, essential elements". The All Star imprint attempts to retell some of the history of DC's iconic characters, but outside of the strict DC universe continuity. Birthright Revamp Mark Waid 's Superman: Birthright was a major revamp of the Post-Crisis Superman and his origin. Waid was assigned the task to streamline the comic origin make is similar to both the movies (with then unreleased "Superman Returns" ) as well as--perhaps especially-- Smallville , which had proven very popular. The following summary is from the 12-issue series.

The cold, fairly dystopian re-imagining of Krypton created by John Byrne was jettisoned. Much like Jeph Loeb and others had done with their "Return to Krypton" arcs, Waid restored the idea of Krypton being more like it had been in the Silver Age--a place of great wonder and myth. In Jor-El's words, the "people grew tired of war, so they made peace; they feared the unknown, so they conquered it with science; and they yearned for heaven, so they created it beneath their very feet...". A substantial change was with the S-shield as well--no longer was it a symbol for his family's house, as it had been in the Silver Age, or merely an "S" standing for Superman, as it had been in Byrne's revamp, but now it was the Kryptonian symbol for hope. It was shown to be a popular symbol, used on flags, paintings, jewelry, and monuments all over Krypton. It was also on a red, blue, and yellow tapestry that was included in Kal-El's rocket ship.

Jor-El was still the scientist whom no one would believe, but instead of Kal-El being an embryo when he was rocketed off, he was again said to be a young child. The Kents were still farmers, as always, but they were even younger than they had been before. Whereas John Byrne had portrayed them as perhaps in their early to mid thirties when they found Kal-El (making them in their mid sixties or perhaps even seventies during Superman's adventures), Waid portrays them as being between 20 and 25 (again to make them closer to their Smallville counterparts). Their characters are also given an overhaul in their personalities to make them more "modern." Martha, for example, is far from the simple lovable, wise farmer's wife who loves to bake and knit. She is portrayed as being fascinated with aliens, U.F.O.s, etc., and even runs her own website dedicated to such stuff when Clark is in his twenties. The entire dynamic between Jon and Clark regarding his Superman identity has also been reversed. In Byrne's era, Superman was committed to using his powers in secret, and once "outed" he retreated to Smallville, unsure of what to do.

It was Jonathan's suggestion that he adopt a costume and dual identity, inspired by the JSA of the 1940s. Waid's story, however, has Clark coming up with the idea of the costume and identity, and shows Jon dismayed at the idea, feeling like Clark is trying to abandon his identity (and, by extension, his connection to his earth family). Waid also brought about a new (or arguably, reintroduced an old) vision power, sometimes referred to as "soul vision." Essentially, Clark can see the "aura" surrounding a living being--an aura that disappears when they die. Waid introduced this as a way of explaining why Clark feels so compelled to defend life, as he can literally see it. Going along with this power, Waid also changed Clark into a vegetarian. These decisions have met with mixed reactions from fans [1] .

Infinite Crisis and 52 revamp The writers of DC have again changed the character in some profound ways due to Infinite Crisis and 52 , selecting to add and remove certain aspects of the character that have been noted in past incarnations after Waid's Birthright that had proven to be unacceptable to many of the specific printed page fans such as Luthor and Kent being almost the same age and interacting as teenagers which they felt negated much of the printed page character's backstories and development. Many of Waid's "Smallville" series compliant edits have since been removed from the yet "revamped again" current incarnation of the character in order to make the character more appreciated to the expectations of the specific printed page fans of the character, as opposed to making the printed page match the expectations of the now obvious separate and non-conforming incarnation of the character from the television Smallville. The most notable change is in the origin of the present printed page incarnation, who is again a very young babe, almost borne on Earth as done in the Byrne revamp, as opposed to the young toddler that was reflective of return of many of the Silver Age elements of the character in Waid's do over.

Also notable is Clark is again an open meat eater enjoying his silver age favorite Beef Wellington, negating or drastically reducing the so called soul vision aspect. While eliminating many of the Birthright series, many of these Silver Age elements are still used in the character and storyline. Superman is again written to appreciate and actively uses his Kryptonian heritage as he helps Lor-Zod and Supergirl fully adjust to life on Earth, rather than just as a historical notation. Serials Radio Program The 1940s radio serial, The Adventures of Superman , introduced Perry White , Jimmy Olsen and Inspector Henderson to the Superman story. The series also introduced kryptonite , and told the first stories about Superman meeting Batman . Narrator Bill Kennedy intoned at the start of each program: "Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Look! Up in the sky. It's a bird. It's a plane. It's Superman! Yes, it's Superman - strange visitor from another planet who came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men.

Superman - who can change the course of mighty rivers, bend steel with his bare hands, and who, disguised as Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper, fights a never ending battle for Truth, Justice, and the American Way." Movie Serials The first animated Superman series was a string of eight-minute cartoon shorts produced by Max and Dave Fleischer for Fleischer studios, Superman . Beginning in 1941 , Fleischer Studios produced nine animated segments of Superman, at which point production was switched over to Famous Studios, where the series continued until 1943 . In total, seventeen episodes were completed and have been widely released on both VHS and DVD formats throughout the years. Fleischer Superman Superman came to the silver screen in two live-action movie serials in the 1940s, portrayed by Kirk Alyn . Mild Mannered Reporter Clark Kent (Kirk Alyn) Man of Steel (Kirk Alyn) You Will Believe a Man Can Fly (Kirk Alyn) Movies Superman returned to the silver screen in 1978's Superman: The Movie . It spawned three sequels of varying degrees of success and quality.

Christopher Reeve as Superman Superman Returns In 2006, the long languishing Superman movie franchise got a restart with Superman Returns . Director Bryan Singer has said that the continuity is "branching off from" elements of "the first two Superman films with Christopher Reeve," which serve as, as he puts it, a "vague history." Thus, the film disconsiders the plot of Superman III and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace . Television DC Animated Superman Superman: The Animated Series ran from 1996-2000 and followed the adventures of Superman as he defended both Metropolis and the entire Earth. The title for episodes airing under the title The New Batman Superman Adventures is The New Superman Adventures, as acknowledged by WB. Related Articles Notes Clark Kent Clark Kent is the secret identity of Superman. Kent, as opposed to Clark, is traditionally presented as behaving in a more introverted or "mild-mannered" manner compared to his superheroic self. As Clark Kent, Superman has always worn his costume underneath his Clark Kent clothes, which lends itself to easy transference between the two personalities.

In the wake of John Byrne's The Man of Steel, the contemporary reboot of Superman continuity, many traditional aspects of Clark Kent were dropped in favor of giving him a more aggressive and extroverted personality, including such aspects as making Kent a top football player in high school, along with being a successful author. Recently, some aspects of this change have been dropped, in favor of bringing back elements of the earlier "mild-mannered" version of Kent. In Metropolis, Clark Kent works as a reporter at the Daily Planet, "a great metropolitan newspaper" which allows him to keep track of ongoing events where he might be of help. Largely working on his own, his identity is easily kept secret. Fellow reporter Lois Lane became the object of Clark's/Superman's romantic affection. Lois's affection for Superman and her rejection of Clark's clumsy advances have been a recurring theme in Superman comics, television, and movies. Some fans have noted that in order for the disguise to be credible, Clark has to be at least as skilled an actor as Christopher Reeve himself; in the Birthright mini-series, young Clark Kent studied the Meisner technique so that he could seamlessly move between his Clark and Superman personas.

Trivia Superman's "S" shield has differed in the different eras. The modern Superman, under John Byrne , had the "S" as nothing more than that: just an S which stood for Superman, stitched together by Martha Kent after Superman's debut in Metropolis. With Mark Waid 's Birthright series, the "S" shield was re-imagined as the Kryptonian symbol for "hope." After Infinite Crisis , it was further revealed that an inverted "S" shield was the symbol for resurrection. There have been a number of TV shows and movies on Superman. The TV show Smallville focuses on a teenage Clark Kent. Prior to Superman: Birthright, Superman's favorite food was Beef Bourguignon with Ketchup, but following Mark Waid's retcon, Superman is now a vegetarian. The use of the name 'Clark' came from actor Clark Gable. The name 'Kent' came from Kent Taylor, actor and the brother-in-law of Jerry Siegel's wife. The prospect of Superman and Wonder Woman as a couple has been an ongoing debate among fans. In the John Byrne revamp of Superman, Superman felt a very strong attraction to Wonder Woman, even to the point of dreaming and fantasizing about her.

While Superman initially thought romance would never be a part of his life due to his crime fighting, he thought for a time that his subconscious was telling him that Wonder Woman was the closest match he would ever find in a potential romantic partner. There have also been hints over the years that Wonder Woman herself is attracted to Superman. According to official DC facts, Superman stands 6 foot 3 inches and weighs 225 pounds. His given age has varied over the decades; during the 1970s and 1980s, his age in most stories was 29, while the timeline given in Zero Hour #0 and most stories written since then increased his age to 35. One of Superman's favorite snacks are soft pretzels from a neighborhood vendor named Mahjoub. Actor Michael Dangerfield lent his voice to the character of Superman on the Krypto the Superdog animated series. Actor Yuri Lowenthal provides the voice for Superman-X , a 41st century clone of Superman on the Legion of Super-Heroes animated series. Links and References TheComicBooks.com - The History of Comic Books TheComicsBooks.com - The History of Comic Books Creating the Superhero Prior to Comicbook heroes we had pulp heroes.

"Pulps" were small 10 cent books sold on the newsstands, usually filled with action heroes going to exotic places and having adventures. Among these heroes were Doc Samson and The Shadow . They also had very popular radio shows. While they certainly did things that were beyond what a normal person could do, they weren't called superheroes or marketed as if they had abilities beyond a person at their physical peak. Nonetheless, they had their influence on what was to come. Another pre-Superhero came from the comic strips, he is Popeye. He was created by Elzie Segar and first appeared in a strip called Thimble Theater in 1929. While he didn't go out and fight crime, he did eat his spinich and displayed some 'above average' feats of human strength while fighting his nemises Bluto. This picture is the first ever appearance of Popeye. This comic is the first American publishing of The Phantom, who is now a worldwide hero. The Phantom made his debut on February 17th, 1936 and he was the first costumed hero. He was created by Lee Falk, who still today is working on his stories.

The Phantom was the kind of hero that despite his normal "human" capabilities, fought crime with bravery and death defying stunts. Many future heroes would follow his lead. For more information about this breakthrough hero read The Phantom biography. Also in 1936 The Clock appeared in Funny Pages #6. The Clock was a masked detective; this is the first time a character used a mask to hide his face. Later on, masks would be used in most costumes so the hero could disguise his or her true identity. The Golden Age (1938 - 1956) In June 1938, Action Comics #1 came out, featuring a man in a red and blue costume lifting a car over his head! This was Superman, the very first comic character to have powers far beyond a normal human being. Sure, Flash Gordon and The Shadow were neat, but they couldn't lift a car over their heads and throw it at someone! Nor could they let bullets bounce off their chests, or run faster than a train, or leap over tall buildings in a single bound. To say the least, Superman was a fitting name. When Siegel and Shuster were younger they tried pitching the Superman idea at newspapers and comics.

One of their earliest proposals was a cartoon character called The Superman in 1933. They were constantly rejected, to the point that artist Joe Shuster once tore up his Superman artwork and stated that he'd redo the character properly if the time ever came. Today Superman is one of the 10 most recognized 'people' on the face of the planet. He has been in several movies, cartoons and TV series. Detective Comics #27 hit the stands in In May, 1939. In it we saw the first appearance of Batman. While Superman was pure and clean, Batman was grim and gritty. In this comic, the villain fell into a vat of acid, which killed him. Not showing any remorse for causing the death, Batman observed "A fitting end for his kind." Batman was created by Bob Kane and has always remained in print. During a time when superhero comics were not so popular, Batman survived by focusing on his detective abilities, making his comic stories more of a mystery series than a superhero book. The reason Batman is so popular is because he is a compromise between the two types of heroes.

He didn't have superpowers, but he did have an intellect, a costume, and neat gadgets that would put him on par with the superheroes. Batman has been put on the big and small screen several times in T.V series, movies, and cartoons. Also in May of 1939, Wonder Comics #1 came out. This title's star hero was called Wonderman (no relation to the Marvel character). His powers were virtually identical to Superman's. This got DC angry enough to file a copyright infringement case against the publisher, Victor Fox. The case went to court and the judge decided in DC's favor. There was a Wonder Comics #2, but no Wonderman in it, and that would be the last of this title's run. In the Summer of 1939, Superman continued to show his success. He was the very first hero to get a comic book fully devoted to telling his adventures. Up until this point, all comic books had a variety of characters and stories in them. Because of the success of this title, other comic characters are also given a chance with their own titles.

In 1939, A book called Motion Pictures Funnies Weekly came out and in it would be Marvel Comics' first and longest running character, Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner . Namor would appear in an 8-page black and white story in the back of this comic. This same story would be expanded a little and would reappear in Marvel Comics #1. This Motion Pictures comic was supposed to be handed out free at movie theaters along the east coast of the States. Most theater chains turned down the book, so the amount of distribution is not known. Later on in October, 1939, Marvel Comics #1 came out. A group of successful superhero veterans from Funnies Inc. contacted publisher Martin Goodman. The Funnies group told him that they would present to him a prepared, finished comic book every month, for a service fee. Among this group was Bill Everett, who created Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner for this book. Other heroes from this comic are The Human Torch, created by Carl Burgos, Ka-Zar, The Angel, and The Masked Raider (who was a Lone Ranger rip-off). This company would go through three different name changes.

The first was Timely Comics, the second was Atlas, and the third and present is Marvel Comics. The Human Torch was re-done as a teenage member of the Fantastic Four in 1961, but The Original Human Torch was brought back for a short time in the 80's. The Angel was re-done as an X-men member, and Ka-Zar still lives on today, he recently got his own series. The Shield made his appearance in Pep Comics #1. The comic hit the stands in January 1940. The Shield was the very first patriotic American hero. His star spangled costume and fight for America created many imitators, Captain America being one of them. This comic book was published by MJL Magazines. This character along with many others heroes were used by Detective Comics in the 80's and had new adventures in a 1991 Legends of The Shield book under a !mpact Comics imprint. In February of 1940 More Fun #52 came out with a new hero. DC made a mistake with this new superhero because they made him too powerful.

The Spectre was a police officer that died, and upon talking to God he was sent back down to Earth as a ghost. Possessing almost unlimited superpowers, he would turn all the evil doers into ash. But the character wasn't a big success because he was quite cold, humorless, and unstoppable. Bullets would pass right through him, he could walk through walls; he had no weaknesses. Despite the initial failure, The Spectre was brought back by DC three times and today has a ongoing series. Also in February 1940, Whiz Comics #2 came out. This comic had a character that would cause DC trouble for some time (click name to see why). His name was Captain Marvel. Some interesting footnotes about this book was that in Thrill Comics #1 (which was an ashcan - promotional small comic) had a character called Captain Thunder, but quickly found out that the name was already taken, so it was changed to Captain Marvel and the title of the comic changed. This comic was also supposed to be named 'Flash Comics', but a few days before their distribution DC put out their own Flash Comics title, featuring The Flash and Green Lantern.

The very first sidekick came out in April of 1940. His name was Robin the Boy Wonder. He first appeared in Detective Comics #38. Batman and Robin would be the best known 'dynamic duo' in comic books. Robin was important in comic books because he was a hero that the younger readers could relate to. Because of the popularity of Robin, other superheroes got their own teen-aged side kicks. Three different characters have filled the Robin costume. The first was Dick Grayson, the second was Jason Todd (who will be talked about later), and the third and current one is Timothy Drake. In the Winter of 1940 the very first superhero team formed. It was called the Justice Society of America. They appeared in All Star Comics #3. The original members included: The Flash, The Green Lantern, The Spectre, The Hawkman, Dr. Fate, The Hour-man, The Sandman, Atom, and Johnny Thunder. All of these characters were great in their own titles, but readers responded with excitement to putting them all together. Creating superhero teams is still a very common thing today. In 1941, Wonder Woman first appeared in All Star Comics #8.

She started out as the Justice League Society secretary, but she would later become the first big name super heroine to go toe to toe with Superman and Batman. Not only could she battle them on equal terms, her book would last as long as theirs. During a time when superheroes were not so popular, Wonder Woman comics, like Superman and Batman, remained strong. Captain America made his first appearance in March, 1941. But the way he appeared was just as exciting as the character. Captain America #1 was his first appearance; Captain America was never tested in another book before receiving his own comic title. This was unheard of in comics to that date. Comic companies did not go out and hire a group a people to produce a comic title if they didn't know the character could sell it. They always tested out the character in another comic first, and gauged reader reaction to the character via sales figures. They did it with Superman in Action Comics #1; it was a year before he got his own book. The same went for Batman. But Timely Comics publisher Martin Goodman saw the rough sketch of Captain America by Joe Simon and knew immediately it would sell. So he gave Captain America his own book right away and was successful with it.

Captain America wasn't like Superman who spoke of "Truth, Justice and the American way". Superman was an alien from outer space; Captain America was a "real" American. Also, Captain America was fighting the Nazi's long before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor happened, after which America entered the Second World War. Even though there were other patriotic heroes in comics, Captain America was the first one to be really successfull with readers. Also in 1941 Pep Comics #22 came out. Little did people know that the superheroes on the cover would not be the big attraction. A story in the back of the comic about a teenaged boy in a love triangle named Archie Andrews would become the draw for this book. Archie Andrews would completely take over this company and keep it successful to this day. In this issue Archie's friends called him 'Chic'; Archie was modeled roughly around Mickey Rooney's Andy Hardy character. By 1943 this company, known then as MJL Magazines, would change its name to Archie Comics. After WWII, superhero comics began to loose their popularity, other genres of comics rose in popularity for usually a few years. Until the whole industy began to drop.

History of Comics - Platinum Age TheComicsBooks.com - The History of Comic Books See you in the Funny Pages.. The early known comic has recently become an exciting, brand new field of research in the comic industry. Up until as recent as a years ago it was generally believed that the first comic book was a reprint collection of the first comic strip, best known as the Yellow Kid. There have been recent discoveries proving that comic books were around long before the Yellow Kid. This new age of comics is being called the "Victorian Age" for now. With this webpage I'm trying to stick to comic books rather than single panel drawings or comic strips in newspapers. Those things I may expand to after I'm somewhat satisfied I have the comic book history nailed down. Today the earliest known comic book is called The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck. Originally published in several languages in Europe in 1837, among them an English version designed for Britain in 1941. A year later it was that version reprinted in New York on Sept. 14, 1842 for Americans, making it the first comic book printed in America.

Odadiah Oldbuck is 40 pages long and measured 8 �" x 11". The book was side stitched, and inside there were 6 to 12 panels per page. No word balloons, but there is text under the panels to describe the story. A copy of it was discovered in Oakland, California in 1998. The comic was done by Switzerland's Rudolphe Töpffer, who has been considered in Europe (and starting to become here in America) as the creator of the picture story. He created the comic strip in 1827 and the comic book/graphic novel. Rudolphe Töpffer created several (7 is known) graphic novels that were extremely successful and reprinted in many different languages, several of them had English versions in America in 1846. The books remained in print in America until 1877. There are an unknown amount of Victorian Age Comic Books, this era of comic book history is still being discovered, researched and recorded. When more information is available I'll be writing about this as well. An influential illustrated book to come out in this period was called The Brownies: Their Book.

The Brownies feature wasn't really a comic book per say. They were created by Palmer Cox and originally part of a children's magazine called St. Nicholas. The Brownies first appeared in the magazine in 1883 in a story called The Brownies' Ride. The Brownies were heavily merchandised and one of the products they put out was book featuring their illustrations with a text story beside the pictures. The Brownies: Their Book was first published in 1887 and several other books involving the same characters followed afterwards. It is likely to be the first North American Comic to be internationally successful. Besides St. Nicholas, there were other magazines using picture stories of sorts and they were getting popular. Among the magazines were Harper's, Puck, Judge, Life and Truth. Newspapers began to recognize their growing popularity and added a Sunday Comics feature to cash in. The newspapers couldn't get the popular artists and their characters because the Magazines already had them signed up. But a Puck staff member, Roy L. McCardell told Morrill Goddard, the Sunday editor of The New York World (then largest newspaper) that he knew someone who could provide something. That someone was Richard F. Outcault.

He did a picture of street children in the June 2nd, 1894 edition of Truth. You can see the Yellow Kid (without yellow) is in the picture at the bottom right and plays a minor role. The caption underneath it would read: Feudal Pride in Hogan's Alley Little Rosilla McGraw -- No; we won't come and play with you, Delia Costigan. Our rejuced means may temporary necessitate our residin' in a rear tenement, but we're jist as exclusive as when we lived on the first floor front and papa had charge of the pound in the Department of Canine Captivity! Afterwards, Outcault would do four more for the Truth magazine the last one was is a homage to Palmer Cox's The Brownies. Originally published on the 9th of February 1895, titled Fourth Ward Brownies. It was reprinted in the newspapers shortly afterwards. Outcault would come to the newspaper and create Hogan's Alley, best known for it's unnamed staring character, whom New Yorkers dubbed, the Yellow Kid. It is believed that Outcault got his inspiration from a number of different sources.

Among them were the cartoons of Michael Angelo Woolf and Charles W. Saalburg cartoons that used street kids. The title Hogan's Alley could have come from the song "O'Reilly and the Four Hundred" which stats off singing "Down in Hogan's Alley." The Platinum Age 1897 - 1938 Early 1897 a book called The Yellow Kid in McFadden's Flats came out. The comic was 196 pages long, square bound, black and white, 50 cents and 5 �" x 7 �". It was published by G. W. Dillingham Company with permission from Hearst, the newspaper that had Hogan's Alley at the time. It was a part of a series that Dillingham did on American Authors, only he took special liberties with this one and created what is today known as a comic book. In fact this comic that coined the phrase "Comic Book" as it's written on the back cover. Inside we get an origin of sorts as it reprints the earliest Yellow Kid's appearances. There is some text within by E. W. Townsend explaining Outcault and the Kid.

This comic book starts what is now called the Platinum Age of Comics. In 1899 a Funny Folks comic book came out, taking a close first stab at a format for many Platinum Age comic books. The book was hardcover, 16 �" wide by 12" tall. Funny Folks was created by F. M. Howarth, but published by E. P. Dutton. It was a black and white collection of reprints from the Puck magazine. In 1901 The Blackberries came out and is the first known full color comic book. It used a format of 9" x 12" and was a hardcover book. Then the most often used format of 17" wide x 11 tall" began being used by a number of comic books. Among them The Katzenjammer Kids, Little Nemo and Happy Hooligan. After the Yellow Kid, Outcault would create many other strips and characters. One of them also ended up in comic book form. That was Buster Brown, published in 1902 by Cupples & Leon.

Thanks to the merchandising success of Buster Brown, many companies made Buster Brown comics as premiums to sell their stuff. Most of these comics were full color, but with only reprinted Sunday comics on one side of the page. They were large volumes and were priced at 50 cents. This format lasted over a decade. In 1910 Mutt & Jeff created a new format, reprinting daily strips in black and white. The book was still a hardcover, but was 15" wide x 5" tall. It was published by Ball and they did 5 volumes of Mutt & Jeff books. Then in 1919, Publisher Cupples & Leon used a different format. They were 10" by 10" with 4 panels per page, each page. They were black and white, 52 pages for 25 cents. Titles and characters used for these books was Mutt & Jeff and Bringing up Father. In 1922 the first monthly comic book came out. It was cover dated January and had a price of 10 cents. They were done in 8 � by 9 format. The title was Comics Monthly and lasted 12 issues.

Each issue was devoted to a popular comic strip character that was syndicated by King Features. Issue #1 and #12 was Polly and her Pals. #2 was Mike & Ike by Rube Goldberg. #3 - S'Matter Pop? #4 - Barney Google. #5 - Tillie the Toiler. #6 - Indoor Sports. #7 - Little Jimmy. #8 Toots and Casper. #9 & 10- Foolish Questions. #11 Barney Google and Spark Plug. These were all reprints of 1921 daily black and white strips. In 1926 Little Orphan Annie and Smitty comics came out in a 7 by 9 format, published by Cupples and Leon. They were printed in both softcover and Hardcover with dust jackets. They were very popular with a 60 cents price. In 1929 Dell Publishing took a crack at a regular Comic Book. The comic was called The Funnies and was done in a big tabloid-sized format. They were 16 pages and sold for 10 cents. It was distributed by the newsstands along with newspapers.

Unlike Comic Monthly, this book was done 4 colours and had original comic strips instead of reprints. A new issue came out every Saturday, but it lost money. Issues #3 to #21 were 30 cents each. The price changed to 5 cents with issue #22 and lasted the final issue with #36. Walt Disney got into comic books too. The earliest of these was Mickey Mouse Book. Done in 1930 - 31, published by Bibo & Lang. These were 9"x12", 20 pages long and stapled together. Despite the title of "book" this was in fact a magazine, inside it had a variety of songs, games and stories. There were later printings of this book but some lyrics were edited, advertising was inserted and christmas card was a part of the front cover. The Adventures of Mickey Mouse is considered to be the first "true" Mickey Mouse comic book. It came out in 1931, is 32 pages long and 5 -1/2" x 8 1/2". It was published by David McKay Co. with a print run of 50,000 copies.

There were both hardcover and softcover versions of this book. A second book came out after the Mickey Mouse cartoons and the characters within were made similar to the cartoons. Mickey Mouse Comic #1 also came out in 1931. It reprints the Mickey Mouse comic strips done by Floyd Gottfredson from 1930 to 1931. It measures 10"x 9 3/4" is 52 pages long with a cardboard cover. The series lasted 4 issues with later reprintings. It was also published by David McKay Co. There were two different Mickey Mouse Magazines done in 1933. The first in January published by Kamen-Blair. It was distributed by daries and local theaters. It lasted until issue #9, the first few issues had a 5 cent cover price, the later ones did not. The second was also give aways done through different Dairie companies. It had two volumes, the both going 12 issues. Both magazines were done by Walt Disney Productions and they ended in 1935. In the summer of the same year A new Mickey Mouse Magazine was done by publisher K. K.

Publishing AKA Western Publishing Co.. Like the previous incarnation, this magazine would run 12 issues, then restart back at #1 with another volume. This continued for 5 years, with #12 volume 4 converted to a more traditional comic book format. It turned 68 pages and shrank to normal comic book size. It then went under a title change to Walt Disney Comics & Stories. I'll discuss that when we get to that point and time. Not all comics were squeaky clean and sold on newsstands. From about the 1930's to the 1950's small dirty comics were sold through underground means. These were called Tijuana Bibles, despite the name they were made in America. While much of their origins or artists are not known it's believed they were made by members of organized crime. This is partialy because the bibles were illegally using trademarked characters. Well known comic strips, movies stars, sport celeberties and more had their likeness used to tell dirty stories with. The book shown here is a collection of Tijuana Bibles. If you are over 18 and you want to see examples of some Tijuana bibles, click here and here .

In 1933, Detective Dan, Secret Op. 48 was the first comic, sold on the newsstands, with original material in it. Done by Norman Marsh this comic had a 3 color, cardboard cover. Inside was black and white. Sold for 10cents, dimensions were 10x13". It had 36 pages and was only a one shot published by Humor Publishers Corp., The Detective Dan character was a Dick Tracy clone, and didn't last very long. There was some other appearances by him though. One in The Adventures of Detective Ace King. Also done in 1933. There are some minor differences between the two books, among them a paper cover and pages 9 1/2 x12". Free Comics became popular in the early 1930's. This was mainly because of the depression and deflation. It also kept the publishing presses running during very hard times. Shutting down and starting up the printing presses cost time and money and the presses did everything they could to keep them going. Thousands of different comics were given away as companies used popular comic strips for advertising purposes. The pioneers of this trend is given to Sam Gold and Kay Kamen.

Among the most well known giveaways are Kelloggs Buck Rogers and Ovaltine's Little Orphan Annie. Eastern Color Printing Company was one company that became very important in formation of comic industry. They had a 45 year old sales manager named Harry I. Wildenberg, among his duties were to come up with ideas to keep the color presses going. In 1932 he noticed the color comic strips sections of newspapers were popular and thought they would be good for advertising. He suggested the idea of a comic book used for advertising to Gulf Oil Company, one of his clients. They liked the idea and hired a few artists to create Gulf Comic Weekly among them were Stan Schendel who did The Uncovered Wagon, Victor (last name unknown) did Curly and the Kids and Svess (last name unknown) doing Smileage. These were one full page, full color comic pictures. The entire comic was 4 pages long and had a format of 10 � by 15. The comic was given away at Gulf Gas Stations making them probably the first comic book published and distributed outside of the newspaper market.

The comic was advertised on radio (telling people to go to Gulf Gas stations to get them) on April 30th 1933. Much to everybodys surprise, the comics proved an very effective draw to the gas stations. People were quickly coming in and snatching them all up. Gulf decided to print out 3 million copies a week had the name changed to Comics Funnies Weekly. The series remained in tabloid sized and lasted 422 issues, ending on May 23, 1941. A few weeks after coming up with the tabloid sized comic book, Wildenberg came up with the idea of doing a comic book. He said he got it when reading a tabloid sized comic strip page, folded it in half, then in half again. He noticed it was a convenient size for reading comics. He also thought publishing it with 32 or 64 pages would be a good size. Wildenberg wasn't the first to use this format though. From 1880's to 1910's the size was popular for reprinted comic pages.

Pulp Dime Novels were already using that size and the Ledger Syndicate was also using 7 by 9 format for their Sunday newspaper comic strip inserts. Convinced his idea would be popular Wildenberg secured the rights from many major Syndicates for to reprint their various comic strips. Among them, Associated, Bell, Fisher, McNaught and Public Ledger Syndicate. He had an artist make up a few hand make comics for demonstration purposes and then has his sales staff go around to all of Eastern Color's biggest advertisers. The first to respond (by telegram) was Procter and Gamble, asking for a million 32 page color comic book. The comic published in the spring of 1933, was called Funnies on Parade. Most remarkable about was it set a format standard, using the same 8" x 11" format that comic books are printed in today. All 1 million copies were given away in a few weeks. The comic came with coupons for Proctor & Gamble products. Doing the grunt work of publishing the comic went to Wildenbergs sales staff. Most of them were infected by the comic publishing bug after this issue and went on to continue with comics afterwards.

The sales staff included Max Gaines (partnered with DC to create All American Comics imprint and started EC), Lev Gleason (became a publisher himself best known for starting the crime comics genre with Crime Does Not Pay) and Harold Moore. Also working on the project was Sol Harrison was the colour seperator (became DC Comics President - retired in 1980), George Dougherty Sr. was the printer (created a lived George Dougherty Co. comics company). Morris Margolis was from Charlton Publications, and was asked to help them figure out how to print the pages in order. Famous Funnies: a Carnival of Comics was the second comic book done by the Eastern Color group. Printed in 1933, it was 64 pages with a 10 cent price. It was the first retail comic that was distributed to the public as it was given away only through chain department stores. Eastern Color Printing worked together on creating it and got George Delacorte of Dell Publishing to publish the book. After the first issue, Dell Publishing (not seeing any profit) decided to stop publishing the comic. M.C.

Gaines sought to convince his boss Wildenberg that they could make money selling these comics on the newsstand. Wildenberg had a hard time believing that anyone would pay for a comic book. To prove his point , Gaines took a few of issues around, put 10 cent stickers on them and went to local newsstands over the weekend. He told the newsstands what he was testing to see if these could sell and that he'd be back Monday to see how they were doing. Monday came around and to his surprise, they had all sold out and the newsstands were asking for more. Other freebie comics done were the 100 page Century of Comics and Skippy's Own Book of Comics. Skippy was a very popular comic character and was the first to receive his own "new" comic dedicated comic series. Each of these had a print run of a half a million. From there Wildenberg was really interested in publishing a "higher level" of a comic book with reprints of famous comic strips, sold for 10 cents. He tried to get many companies to hop on but none would. Among those to turn him down were Oscar Fitz-Alan Douglas known as the brains of Woolsworth department store.

After much deliberation he decided a 10 cents wasn't worth a comic book. Many other stores to turn them down, as did Parents Magazine. The just couldn't see anyone paying 10 cents for old comics they already read from the newspapers. They Syndicates didn't see it selling either, they remembered both Comics Monthly and The Funnies trying and failing at selling comic books. Finally Eastern Color owner George Janosik stepped in and asked George Delacourt of Dell Publishing to form a 50/50 partnership in a 10 cent comic magazine for the newsstand. He agreed but the two were stopped cold by the distributor American News Distribution refused as they remembered Dell's The Funnies failure from a few years before. The two then decided to go to the retail chains stores again and got some of them to sell the comics at 10 cents each. Famous Funnies (know called Series One because of duplicate names) used material previously reprinted from the first Famous Funnies and Century of Comics. It was 64 pages, had a print run of 400,000 and they all sold out within 30 days. Not one single returned.

Eastern wanted to go back for a second print run but Dell wouldn't agree. Apparently advertisers felt using comic books was beneath them. Still the sold out print run made the two companies $2,000. Harold Moore an employee under Wildenberg was on a train reading an article about a successful New York newspaper that said their Comics Section was responsible for much of their success. Moore then went back to American News president Harry Gold with the newspaper article. He finally agreed to distribute a monthly comic magazine with a print run of 250,000. In May 1934 (the comic was dated July), another first issue of Famous Funnies appeared on the newsstands. It featured four pages each of several newspaper comic characters. It was 64 pages long but kept the 10 cent price tag. It had a 90% sell though but still lost $4,150.60. A second issue came out in July (cover dated September) and was monthly after that. With the second issue the magazine hired people at 5 dollars a page to create original material for them. Meanwhile it costed the magazine 10 dollars a page for Syndicated reprints.

The comic was edited by Steven O. Douglass but Moore got the credit in the first issue. From issue #3 and on Buck Rogers took the center stage and became the comics feature character. By 7th issue, finally a profit emerged as the group made $2,664.25, but it must have been too little, too late as Dell Publishing got cold feat and sold their 50% to Eastern Color. Still, every issue had higher sales, and by a years time sales were up to almost a million per month. How the 10 cents per issue got divided among the parties bounced around as the series progressed. At first Eastern would see 6 of the 10 cents, later it was 6 �. The rest was split between Newsstand and Distributor with the newsstand taking 2 then 2 � cents and American News took 1 then 1 � cents. Eastern proudly made public the amount of money they were making off the comics, as a way of saying "I told you so" to the many people rejected the idea at first. They were making $30,000 per issue. They also did this to drum up more business, either as a publisher or printer.

By the time a year had gone by Funnies had gained some respect and was placed on newsstands beside slick magazines like Atlantic Monthly and Harper's. They also had 5 competitors putting out monthly magazines. This comic series would last 218 issues ending in 1955. In 1934, with a cover date of February 1935, New Fun Comics came out. The creator, Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson decided that he didn't want to pay the fees that the newspapers were charging for their old comic strip reprints. So he got new comic material that wasn't being published in the newspapers. National Allied Publications Inc. published New Fun Comics in a much bigger 10" x 15" tabloid size. Which was closer to what the news paper comic section was. The cover was full color and was made out of stiff cardboard. Inside about half the book had color in it, but each strip was usually allowed one color only. It is also said that this title is the first to have advertisements inside, while selling on the newsstands. The strips inside were done by a mix of cartoonist veterans struggling during the depression or young cartoonists trying to break in.

In fact, some of the new comic material was made by Wheeler-Nicholson himself. Some artists already had completed strips that the syndicates wouldn't take, and they were able to get some money for them by printing them here. Many were knock offs of popular newspaper strips. Out of all the strips only two had any lasting effect, those were Wing Brady and Barry O'Neill. The series would last 6 issues before the name would change to More Fun Comics, with issue #9 the format would change to a normal comic book size. Of those contributing strips to the issue would be Walt Kelly and Al Capp who later go on to have great success in the comic strip field. With the help of superheroes, this title would last 127 issues getting cancelled in November 1947. There was a brief time after issue #12 the book would start at #1 again with a volume 2. This last for 5 issues and then switched back to volume 1 returning with the original numbering with issue 18. After New Fun Comics, another Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson published another title. This was New Comics (December, 1935) and again it featured all new material.

Among the artists who's work featured in here was Walt Kelly, Sheldon Mayer and Vincent Sullivan, all three would be important to the development of comics. The title would go through many name changes, turning into New Adventure Comics with issue #12, then to simply Adventure Comics with issue #32. Like New Fun, the title went through a period of volume 2 with new numbering starting with New Adventure Comics #1, then New Adventure Vol 3 #1 and stopping with Vol. 3 #2, before returning to #22 continuing it's original numbering run. This title with the help of many superhero features would last until 1983, ending with issue #503. Lev Gleason would also get a comic strip Syndicate behind him and become the editor of Tip Top Comics #1 with all United Features syndicated comic strips. Under their umbrella was Tarzan, Li'l Abner, Broncho Bill, Captain and the Kids and other popular strips. Eventually Peanuts appeared in this series as well. This title also gave us the first published work of Harvey Kurtzman and Jack Davis, both would go on to make EC Comics very popular and successful.

The series would also end up becoming one of the first comic book Trade Paper Back, with bound reprints of a number of issue being up for sale at the 1939 Worlds Fair. First set had issues 1-12, second 13-24, the third 25-36. This title would be published by both St. John Publishing and later Dell Publishing, stretching out and last 225 issues ending in 1961. In February 1936 Chicago Tribune Syndicate teamed up with Max Gaines, his assistant Sheldon Mayer and George Delacorte (his third try at comic books) and created Popular Comics featuring a huge amount of well known characters. Among them, Dick Tracy, Terry & the Pirates, Gasoline Alley, Skippy, Mutt and Jeff, Tailspin Tommy, Little Orphan Annie and many more. The third and final try at comics would be what Delacourte needed to become a successful publisher, in fact Dell Publishing Co. would be one of the most successful comic publishers of all time. This title would last 145 issues and end in 1948.

In April of 1936, another major comic strip syndicate would jump in the comic book business. King Features created King Comics. David McKay was a publisher who had done some comic books through King Features, and he had the job of doing this one with the editor Ruth Plumly Thompson. In it Flash Gordon, Popeye, Mandrake the Magician would be among the popular strips to make their appearance in the first issue. Later on The Lone Ranger, The Phantom, Prince Valiant, Blondie and Little Lulu would be among the other popular strips to appear in the title. The comic would last 159 issues and end in 1952. Out of it would spring Standard Publishing a comic book company with many different titles. A month later two men named William Cook and John Mahon published The Comics Magazine #1. Cook and Mahon were former disgruntled employees of National Allied Publications, owned by Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson - the company that gets later renamed to DC Comics. Cook and Mahon would go on to form a publishing company called Comics Magazine Co. but the title changed and so did the ownership. Eventually it would be called Centaur Comics.

The Comics Magazine #1 would feature a character and two creators that go on to become famous. Mr. Mystic was created and done by Siegel and Shuster, the two would go on to create Superman. Mr.Mystic was not in a costume in this issue, but the weird thing was the character would later appear in DC Comics More Fun #14, with the story (called "The Koth and the Seven") continuing on from one publishers book to the next. Another Siegel and Shuster character to appear in this title was Federal Agent, later renamed Federal Men when they also appeared in DC Comics. The Comics Magazine would change it's name to Funny Pages with issue #6. The series would feature a character named The Clock, who was the first masked hero in comics. The title would last until 1940 ending with issue #42. By the end of the year, Centuar Publications would be the first to publish titles devoted to a single theme. They were Detective Picture Stories, Western Picture Stories, and Funny Picture Stories. Despite the title, Funny was about Adventure type stories.

Detective Picture Stories would last 5 issues and they would include some work by creators who later become famous like Wil Eisner and Bob Kane. The title may have continued on with another name but the specifics are not known. Funny Picture Stories lasted almost as long, but they did 3 volumes, resetting the numbers back to #1 each time. The 1st went 9 issues, the 2nd went 11 issues (#6 being the first with the Centuar Comics name on it) and the 3rd lasted 3 issues before the title gets renamed to Comic Pages from #4 and up. This series also had work from people who later become famous, among them Charles Biro and Bob Wood best known for Crime Does Not Pay comic, and Fred Guardineer who did a lot of work for DC Comics. Lastly, Western Picture Stories lasted 4 issues. All with Wil Eisner work in them. In March 1937, Detective Comics #1 came out. This comic was the first true DC comic book. This issue was the first production of two companies that formed the DC company.

Comic producer Major Malcolm Wheeler wasn't making much money with his comic books (New Fun being one of them) and owed money to his printer and just about everybody else. Wheeler was forced to collaborated with his printer/distributor Harry Donenfeld to produce this book. Most of the stories in this issue are racist towards Chineese people and they are the villains in the majority of the tales. One such story titled "Claws of the Red Dragon" writen by Major Malcolm Wheeler. Another story of note in here is called Slam Bradley done by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The character looks very similar to another they created. That being Superman. From the opening splash page to the different layouts to the tough guy hero saves the girls it's easy to see how there style paved the way for the typical comic hero story. By 1938, Donenfeld, bought out Wheeler's other books to become the sole owner. He then took on a friend/accountant in his distribution business, Jack Liebowitz as a partner. The company was renamed National Periodical Publications. Liebowitz stayed at the offices and headed the accounting and creative part of DC, while Donnenfeld handled and expanded the distribution though his company Independent News Co..

Donnenfeld remained president of DC until his death in 1965. Liebowitz remained in DC until 1970 and later moved to the Board of Directors of the Warner Brothers company. He died in 2000. Detective Comics is the DC's longest running comic book title, this is due to another character who took over the about 2 years later. Comics On Parade #1 by United Feature Syndicate. April 1938, goes to #104 1955. First issue featured Tarzan by Hal Foster, Captain and the Kids, Little Mary Mixup, Abbie & Slats, Ella Cinders, Broncho Bill, and Li'l Abner. A few months later a new comic would come out that change the comic industry forever. Up until now, most comics were made for adult readers. This new comic showed that you can make a lot more money by marketing comics to kids.

Question: In which year did Superman appear in comics for the first time?
Answer: 1938